What I do for a living

Patent drafting, as described by Mr. Justice Dube (1996):
Obviously, at first reading, claim 1 does not appear to be a model of concision and limpidity. It is not a literary masterpiece. Very few patent claims are. They are not meant to be read and enjoyed by avid novel readers and less so by sophisticated authors.

And to think, I once prided myself on certain fanfics. Yes, I was one of those geeks who wrote fanfics...for FF6, no less! And I still think they were good, darn it! But as quoted above, I have put my literary days behind me and have embarked on the path of technical writing. Although I suppose there is a certain bit of poetry in legalese...maybe. But then that just goes to show that I am not a sophisticated author, though I would hope that I at least qualify as, if not avid, then occasional novel reader.

Anyway, I am getting rather slack with my postings. Maybe if there were comments I would post more often? Well...maybe...

Merry December

I used to wonder why Christmas decorations start going up so early in stores, or why Christmas specials started in November. This was before I had to buy presents. My friends don't have a tradition of exchanging Christmas presents, nor does my family. As such, I have always been happily free of the holiday stress. This year, though, my parents are visiting from the other side of the world, so I think it would be nice to get them something. Which is why I now understand people who start thinking about Christmas shopping in mid-November.

The last thing I want to do is be part of the desperate rush on December 23, but I've been delaying the actual purchase of gifts for a while now. Sure, I have something in mind, but I'm the indecisive type, so if I buy it now, it'll just give me weeks to agonize over whether I made the right choice. What is that they say about the paralysis of too much choice?

And it's so hard getting gifts for your parents. After all, there's not much you can surprise them with, and you've known them so long you can't imagine anything they really want. It's one of those cases of knowing someone so well there's no distinct like/dislike anymore. Fortunately for me, I think my parents would be happy with anything (because we don't usually exchange gifts). But I think if I had to get something for them every year, I would run out of ideas terribly fast.